How evaluation at Aaniiih Nakoda College is strengthening land, culture, and community
Michael Brydge with Buffalo Center technicians and interns collect grassland bird nests in Harlem, Montana, in July 2024.
In many Indigenous communities, relationships with land, animals, water, and one another form the foundation of cultural life and resilience. But how do we measure the strength of those relationships in a world increasingly reliant on data and reporting? This is the question we look to answer through our tribal programming evaluations.
We’ve recently partnered with Aaniiih Nakoda College (ANC), a public tribal land-grant community college on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana, to assess the impact of their Buffalo and Water Centers. The college received a $3.5 million, five-year National Science Foundation grant to launch the ʔíítaanɔ́ɔ́nʔí/Tataǵa (Buffalo) Research and Education Center and later developed the Nic?-Mni (Water) Center to deepen their commitment to ecological and cultural restoration. We were brought on to lead evaluations to track progress, support storytelling, and offer an outside perspective grounded in respect.
ANC serves the Aaniiih (White Clay People) and Nakoda (Generous Ones) Nations, and their mission is to sustain Indigenous lifeways while preparing students for both traditional and modern futures. The Buffalo and Water Centers are two programs born from vision, collaboration, and cultural responsibility where education, research, and stewardship converge. The Buffalo Center connects students to the land through buffalo herd management, Indigenous science, and intergenerational knowledge transfer. The Water Center focuses on water monitoring, climate adaptation, and sovereignty. Students learn to care for rivers, springs, and aquifers through scientific tools as well as traditional teachings.
Both centers serve as living classrooms where ecological restoration is braided with language, history, and healing. In alignment with this vision, our aim is to measure progress and document the deep impact of the programs.
Technicians and interns check for grassland bird eggs to weigh and measure.
Technicians and interns conduct a vegetation survey to measure grass height and quantity.
A participatory, culturally grounded approach to evaluation
Evaluation, in its most basic form, is the process of asking: Is this working? By comparing what was intended to happen with what actually happened, it identifies strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement. In other words, it measures both results and effectiveness, providing evidence to decide whether to continue, adjust, or end the effort.
Too often in learning contexts, mainstream evaluation relies on metrics like student GPA, job placement rates, or attendance. Though these can be useful data points in helping colleges gauge the success of their curriculums, they miss what matters most in tribal contexts: ceremony, identity, intergenerational knowledge, and relationship to land. When metrics aren’t designed by and for Native communities, they fail to reflect the real outcomes. When evaluation is done with care and cultural alignment, it becomes a conversation, a mirror, a map. It clarifies what’s been done, reveals what’s meaningful, and helps chart what’s next.
Our role as outside evaluators is to support. We’re not auditors. We are listeners, translators, and collaborators. We help identify patterns, synthesize learning, and tell stories that reflect the full spectrum of impact. When tribal colleges invite us in, we strive to provide clarity, credibility, and tools for long-term sustainability without compromising culture.
Effective evaluation helps solve real problems: underreported outcomes, a lack of culturally relevant metrics, funder accountability, missed opportunities for planning and visibility, and more. Done well, it can create alignment between elders, faculty, students, funders, and the broader tribal community.
Aaniiih Nakoda College campus building.
Jordan Greene meets with ANC President Dr. Sean Chandler.
Evaluating tribal college programming
Tribal colleges operate at the intersection of two worlds: Indigenous and academic. Evaluation helps bridge them. For colleges like ANC, evaluation clarifies purpose, aligns programming with community needs, and builds support for long-term investment.
Students benefit from seeing their growth and leadership documented. Faculty gain insight to adapt curriculum and outreach. Tribal leaders use findings to plan for land, food, and water sovereignty. Funders gain transparent, culturally appropriate reporting. Evaluation makes invisible impacts visible, without sacrificing Indigenous ways of knowing.
In 2024, our Buffalo and Water Center evaluations consisted of:
Two college site visits, including multiple project site visits between the two centers
Interviews with 29 stakeholders (students, elders, faculty, and staff)
Review of dozens of grant documents, reports, and presentations
Tracking performance across 14 customized indicators
We worked directly with center directors, student interns, faculty mentors, and tribal advisors. We reviewed the curriculum, documented ceremonies, observed community events, and listened to what success looked like in their own words.
Buffalo feeding at Aaniih Nakoda College in October 2024.
Here’s what we discovered:
The Buffalo Center completed seven research projects, hired 11 interns, hosted five community gatherings, and increased cultural fluency and land connection.
The Water Center conducted ongoing groundwater and stream monitoring, presented at national conferences, and provided valuable educational outreach.
Interns have a deepened sense of identity and purpose. Several changed career paths. One became a lead intern; another returned as a mentor.
Student engagement and research confidence has grown significantly.
The Centers are delivering real impact.
Challenges exist, too. The launch of the ecology bachelor’s program has been delayed. The Water Center internships are under-enrolled. Economic impact analysis is still in development. In the process of learning, evaluation helps shine a light on what’s working and what needs more care.
These evaluations have shaped my perspective, too. I’ve come to see them as a form of ceremony and a way to witness, respect, and walk alongside. I’ve learned that ceremony, kinship, and connection to place are incredibly valid data points, and stories can be just as meaningful as metrics. And, importantly, I know outside evaluators must lead with humility, curiosity, and presence.
As outside evaluators, distance allows us to ask hard questions without personal bias. As collaborators, proximity allows us to stay accountable to the community. We can help bring to the surface what’s meaningful, measure what’s hard to quantify, and offer tools to navigate external systems without compromising cultural integrity.
If you’re a funder, educator, tribal leader, or ally interested in conducting an evaluation, consider:
Supporting Indigenous-designed evaluation models
Funding flexible timelines that respect seasonal and ceremonial rhythms
Including language, kinship, and ceremony as core outcomes
Elevating student and community voices in all reporting
Advocating for long-term, place-based research at tribal colleges
Evaluation, when done with respect, becomes a process of reconnection. At Aaniiih Nakoda College, we’ve seen students rise into leadership, buffalo return to the land, and water honored as a living relative. These shifts may not show up in conventional metrics, but they can be transformational. To understand the true value of tribal programming, we must look beyond compliance and toward ceremony, land, and leadership. We are honored to walk this path with Aaniiih Nakoda College.
